Saturday, 21 February 2009

They found him

I think I speak for everyone when I say that we were worried about Sir Allen when he suddenly disappeared. Glad to see that he is back. From the FT:

The lavish lifestyle enjoyed by Sir Allen Stanford, the Texas billionaire charged by US financial regulators with “massive” investment fraud, has been laid bare by court documents from two years ago that emerged on Friday. A $10m Florida mansion, bills of up to $75,000 for Christmas presents and childrens’ holidays, and a $100m fleet of private jets topped a list of Sir Allen’s outgoings and assets in the documents obtained by the Financial Times from a 2007 court case.

Details of his lifestyle emerged as the Federal Bureau of Investigation continued its probe into the billionaire’s affairs and allegations that his Antigua-based Stanford International Bank was at the centre of an $8bn fraud that may have drawn in tens of thousands of investors.

The criminal inquiry by the FBI and justice department is expected to resemble that of Enron seven years ago, when a special taskforce was formed to investigate allegations of criminal behaviour at the Houston-based energy company.

Sir Allen and two co-defendants had surrendered their passports to the US authorities, the Securities and Exchange Commission said on Friday.